Gillmor Gang on SideWiki: Building Audience

The video is up now. The discussion was on SideWiki. I'm afraid Robert was a little outnumbered, but it was a lively discussion and a lot of fun.

Robert kept saying that it was unfair for Google to ride on top of his distribution. Steve Fulling had made a comment regarding SideWiki and the piece I posted this week about new media platforms that was relevant to that argument that I repeated on the vidcast: it's not Robert's audience that Google is using, it's Google's. The only people who see SideWiki are the people who have the Google Toolbar installed. Google worked to create that platform and get distribution for it. Consequently, it's their audience who sees the SideWiki comments, not Robert's. Robert's audience see's Robert's blog. Where those two audiences overlap, they see SideWiki comments and Robert's blog together.

This is an important point because it reinforces that this isn't about freeloading. Both Google and Robert have spent money to build an audience and their respective succcess is based on those audiences. Is Google allowing people to talk about Robert's blog? Sure, but that's nothing new--people talk about things all the time. What people are up in arms about is that the Web allows you to see my comments and the thing I'm commenting on simultaneously. Arguing against that is no different than arguing against any other technology that removes old, traditional barriers and friction from transactions. You can argue against it all you want, but you can't stop it. Just ask the RIAA and MPAA.